The City, The Blog

We've Moved!

2011-05-10T09:16:00.000-07:00

We have officially moved the location of our blog/news page, so if you're interested in continuing to get all of our latest posts, please mosey on over to http://thecitymusic.com. Thank you!

Working on Last Song for EP

2010-12-15T17:48:00.000-08:00

We've now spent two solid nights working on a simple jewel which will cap our first EP, entitled The Fort, the Fair, the Fires. The song is an acoustic, The City-retooled version of Jump, a song on Jay's upcoming live, acoustic studio record, Fundamental, coming out this January.

Dragon Room

2010-11-15T19:04:00.000-08:00

Where are the apples?

Getting fixed

2010-11-15T19:01:00.001-08:00

Well, well, well....who has email blogging access?????
THIS GUY!

Sent from my iPhone

Newest Song - Broken Well - Initial Mix Complete

2010-11-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

Yeah, we know. Nobody has to say it, so we won't either. Onward and upward...

Just last night, in a seemingly simple, no-complications recording session at the Dragon Room, Gary and I finished the initial mix of our newest song, "Broken Well". In what we call "the morning after test", we're still really happy with the results from the evening. (The Morning After Test is just the process of letting your ears rest over night, then listening to the previous night's work the following morning.)

So here's where we stand:

Almost four songs complete:

So Far
From the Bones
The New Logic
Broken Well

We want to record one more song - completely instrumental - that should take us a couple of full days in the studio to complete. Once that's done, we will be sending our tracks for mixing - presumably by some music guru, then, once we're happy with the mixes, we will send the mixes off to a mastering studio - to be finalized for release, where another presumed audio guru will tinker with our songs on tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment.

Then we plan the album's release: getting press, airplay, distribution, putting together the album layout and design. Then we release it. And somewhere in there, before the official release, we'll give you a chance to buy the record before it's in stores.

So there you have it. We have a busy three months ahead of us.

Rough Mix Complete for "From The Bones"

2010-03-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, Gary and I finished the initial mix for our song From the Bones. This coming Saturday, we'll complete our final mix and put the song on the website (http://thecitymusic.com). We're taking this week to listen to the mix on different audio systems (stereos, cars, iPods, computers), taking notes and gathering comments for some final tweaking. We're looking forward to sharing this new song with you.

Photo by: Joel Sage > http://www.joelsage.com

A Long Night, A Sweet Evening

2009-12-10T22:34:00.000-08:00

Gary and I hung out and talked shop tonight - for over three and a half hours. No recording, though we wanted to. If you're familiar with Elmhurst, then you probably will know exactly where we're talking about. We started off at Caribou, on York, just after 7:30, and migrated south to BWW, once they closed (at a lame 9 PM). Though BWW was substantially louder, and sometimes difficult to focus at, we managed to hammer out some key issues about how we'll be approaching the coming year as The City.

For starters, our highly-anticipated freshman release will be completed. And, we also decided that Widmer beer is much better than Leinenkugels Honey Weiss. I also just did a quick Google search and discovered that, contrary to its deceptive name, Widmer is made in Portland, OR. It's not German at all. We left the restaurant with hoarse throats. Too much to say, too loud of a place to say it in; but we managed.

After a frigid car ride home (and a really productive conversation), I grabbed some left-overs from the fridge, sat down at the computer, and started this post.

We're unbelievably excited about the direction that we're heading, and look forward to having you join us on the journey. After all, we [all] are The City.

30 Hours Logged, and Counting

2009-12-04T17:29:00.000-08:00

Over the past month, we've been working on the next song for the record. It's called "From the Bones". We've spent three, full days on it, plus a few evenings, and we're already getting close - very close - to finishing it up. Here's a little peak at what the Logic arrange window looks like for the song. peaCe. -Jay

Initial Mix Complete

2009-11-24T18:15:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that we completed the initial mix for "So Far". We're taking this week to let the recording sink in, and we'll be tweaking it or adding or changing things this Thursday night. Stay tuned.

"So Far" So Far

2009-11-12T22:25:00.001-08:00

Gary and I have been working on finishing up the second song for our new EP, coming out real soon, and tonight we made some serious progress. We finished the initial mix for "So Far". We'll be stewing over the recording for the next week, and we'll tweak levels for another pass. Hopefully, we'll bounce a final mix of the song and post it on the website sometime after next Thursday.

Also in the works, we'll be recording all day on the last two Saturdays of November, here in the Dragon Room. Also of note: If you'd like to come over and watch, we happily take beverages from Starbucks. Two iced coffees with 'Bucks original syrup. Just a little whole milk. Grande, please.

Post #1

2009-11-10T09:36:00.001-08:00

It always starts with one post. And first posts are notoriously lame. That's why we're doing something special for our first. We're only telling people about this contest here, in this post. If you sign up on our mailing list (here: http://thecitymusic.com) and put the word "contest" after your name, in the name field, you'll be entered into a raffle to win our new T-shirt (we're pressing it in February), along with a link to download our first album (available in March). Excellent. Stay tuned, and enjoy the music. -JM